Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Dysconnect, April 2009: Deterritorialising Piles [as files]

~ a reprint of my monthly column from Inpress ~Flashback five years: it’s April 2004, and I’m standing outside Cisco Techno in Shibuya (RIP), trying to send an email on my phone while juggling an unwieldy shoulder bag, an umbrella, and another record bag heavy with my latest EP purchases – if I recall, it was the lion’s share of the early Musik Krause back-catalog, and one or two EPs by James Din A4. My bag was unwieldy because of what it contained: I was toting my recently bought G4 Powerbook and a USB hard drive, which I’d been invited to bring over to my friend’s place in order to ‘get some music’.

And boy did he give me some: in one night, he transferred nearly 100 GB of music from the collection stored on his USB hard drive. I watched, gobsmacked, while album after album of classic music transferred in seconds between my spanking new super smooth laptop and his even more frighteningly powerful watercooled G5 Power Mac. When I made to leave, my hard drive was so hot I could barely touch it – and yet it weighed a little less than the seven or so vinyl EPs I was also about to carry home on the train with me. In hindsight, it was a pivotal moment for me – but what was truly pivotal was that I was only one of tens of millions of people all around the world who were starting to do just the same thing.

In April 2009, sharing entire music collections in this way is a commonplace. Ironically, the vintage of my G4 Powerbook – still lumbering on as I write this like some desk-living Chevrolet in Havana – means it doesn’t support unpowered USB drives, a periodic problem when interstate friends arrive toting card-size drives and demanding their 'rightful copy' of the collection.

…which I’ve become a bit ‘thing’ about giving over, actually. ‘Cos there’s an icky aftertaste that follows the initial exhilaration of acquiring music in this way, and it affects you even if you don’t taste it. Let’s be clear, I like the sharing bit: music’s becoming common certainly de-commodifies and de-fetishises what was once the purview of the febrile trainspotter, whose manic passions for dusty crates of records, combined with her equally peculiar passion for particular artists, produced a collection that was idiosyncratic, irreducible, flammable, dust-gathering, cumbersome, and almost impossible to ‘share’.

But the ickiness sets in when you give things away without their due, without filtration, to be anonymously filed on some stupid magneto-optical device (that gets ‘all hot’ when you load it), unloved, unnoticed, un-curated. Despite (and indeed because of) all that quantity, it’s actually a very shitty way to ‘get’ music: podcasts, radio, playlists, mixtapes – much better, for the common reason that there’s someone applying their peculiar ‘plastic passions’ to your earspace.

For my own part, I decided to stop letting the pace of releases dictate the pace of listening-digestion. ‘No,’ I said, ‘I’ll take all the promos as they come, but I’m just going to get through them at my own pace.’ Well, shucks, let’s count ‘em – it’s April 2009, and I have eighty-seven unlistened to long recordings (albums and mixes), and 37 EPs sitting in a ‘clearing folder’ on my desktop, a folder I created in December 2008. It’s not even necessary for me to engage in piracy: I have a hard enough time getting through a fraction of what I legitimately receive and should be listening to in my capacity as a professional peddler of interpretations on recorded music.

‘We’ve come a long way’ in five years… but what kind of progress is this? Anecdotally, this is how almost all of my friends acquire new music now: only two still regularly buy CDs, and fewer and fewer are buying records, while those like me who still do are buying them more selectively/retrospectively, in fewer numbers… and soon much of it will all be deterritorialised, uploaded onto the common cloud… it’s a funny old world, what’s materially left of it....fellow SSG readers... how does this accord with your experience?

NB: this is not a 'format war' post, and no correspondence on the superiority of any given format will be entered into.

35 comments:

There was a time when I would by an album, and it would last a long long time. That rarely happens anymore.

I'm stuck between thoughts. Are people able to hold an album together at the moment? Is it a case that there is now to much access to music, too much choice? Has the internet and means of swapping created a kind of music status anxiety? Or has age simply changed my understanding and appreciation of music?

I do lean slightly towards the idea that the ease at which we consume music, has had an affect on the ease at which we forget it, collecting dust in, er, nowhere!

I think perhaps there is also very little consequence to music purchasing these days, partly as most of value it so highly that we refuse to pay a penny for it. It is not like committing to something, when you take someones whole collection; you just horde it, sit on it, think, "wow now I could listen to Sun O's whole back catalogue if wanted"

I get suspicious of anything that is too easy, and sometimes I feel a little shallow in my music appreciation and acquisition.

Taking it at your own pace, I'm sure is the right idea. There are too many warnings from smarter people than me, about the need to take a step back and appreciate whats in front of y.... oh god two new Sandwell releases gotta get em, quick.

Strange times we live in, and difficult to form a conclusive good/bad opinion on. For more on this check out the excellent http://slowlisteningmovement.blogspot.com/

I still buy vinyl, but CDs really are worthless. MP3s and big hard drives are extremely convenient, but it's hard for them to truly excite. You're right about that icky feeling, it's the porn of music.

I stopped pirating music because of this. Piracy was great in college, because I could get through musical phases extremely quickly. However, I'd miss out on records for ages because I'd listen for the sound of a record - sample 10 seconds of each track, and then decide whether to continue. Usually, no.

I eventually took a look at my collection and realized how little I'd actually heard from cover to cover. I decided to:

a) unplugb) start listening a little more systematically.

Systematic didn't mean dogmatic, but I put away the shuffle mode a little bit, and then consciously listened to things more than once. Generally, one time through in order, another time in random order.

I still hit up a bunch of DJ mixes (thanks!) and occasionally use Hype Machine for my non-DJ music fixes. When something new comes out that I'm convinced I'll like, I pay for it.

I I've never done any sort of full drive drops. Never made sense, too much to process. But playlists of new or interesting things you think someone would be into are always happening. Much better way.

I also havn't had the same experience with vinyl as most dance music listeners. I'm younger and only started listening a few years back. Never had anything but digital files. I think the ickyness comes from the soupyness of such huge amounts of music. No direction or structure, just a mass of files.

hmmm. the problem with this is it is still piracy no matter which way you look at it. If you have mates who release music for the purposes of sale, then I find it disrespectful to them to look at it merely as a file for the purposes of sharing and in won't do it. I know all this is an age old argument that most people have strong opinions on one way or another.

Worse is a bulk dump of music files as I really don't think the receiver can get to appreciate it all. I know many of us are this way now with podcasts etc. Music becomes too disposable and so much deserves a proper, and repeated listens rather than looking for the quick hit.

Personally I far rather bleat on about a new discovery to mates and have them obtain it to hopefully enjoy as I have. The reverse is true when it is someone that I have a handle on their tastes or opinions.

Me - well I still like to buy CD's though - the ol' touch it / feel it / read it gig. Of course this can also facilitate the joy of discovery of other tracks than you may like even more than the one or two you bought the CD for initially.

I've done this with some friends, but my experiences end up similar to yours. I leave with a hard drive full of new music which just gets lost. The quantity of music is simply too overwhelming. Even if I do make myself listen to the 20GB of music my friend just gave me (which always seems like a chore), I end up rarely re-listening to the music. I find a couple of albums that I love, which end up being ones I was really excited about to begin with, and the rest just get lost in a digital sea.

Last time I did this was a couple of months ago. Since then, I've been averaging about 10-15 records a month, and I end up listening to these records over and over again; just sitting there...listening. Getting a small stack of records is completely euphoric, and stays that way, whereas big hard drive transfers are chores, both during the transfer and afterwards.

I now spend much more time listening to my records, buying records and basically loving music more. My point is simply one that the ssgs (and more specifically Peter) have been making for awhile: spend time with your music. Records and (to a lesser extent) CDs allow you to do this.

This isn't to say a digital download can't be exhilarating, it's just that it's easy to get carried away with quantity when downloading files.

I've bought many fewer records in the past year, in part because of the economy (around 2000-2001, when I had a job in tech, it was not uncommon for me to spend more on records in a given month than I had on rent) and in part because I don't play out much. (Also, in part, because the last couple of years have provided a deluge of promos -- albeit digital promos that I would occasionally find myself re-buying on wax, just in order to be able to play out.)

A couple of weeks ago, I got hooked up with Traktor Scratch, and two funny things happened. One: my next trip to Hardwax was confusing: what the hell was I supposed to buy, when so many things I could request on promo, or download legally for a fraction of the price? (I love wax but living overseas has cured me of the need to own everything on the format.) I ended up buying a handful of vinyl-only releases, and detouring through the Honest Jons back catalog, making a few "non-DJ" purchases with my suddenly freed-up record budget. The second thing to note: since "going digital," I'm suddenly buying music off Beatport, Bleep, Boomkat etc., like never before. Now that I can play digital files, I want proper 320 rips, etc. And it's not like you're restricted to new catalog -- recently I've been buying tons of surprises, like old Versatile releases I'd forgotten about (wax is in my mom's basement), Pal Joey tracks I never knew, Autechre B-sides for ambient sets, etc... If anything, shifting to the digital/vinyl format looks like it's triggering an uptick in my purchasing.

As with anything, moderation is the key. However, living in South Africa, digital distribution and the massive proliferation of podcasts and promo material have eased the strain on my wallet, and opened my ears to a great diversity of music. There is still something to be said for holding a release in your hands and reading the sleevenotes and keeping everything organised and dust free... I've found that I'm spending less on the digital releases, and the the music that I'm really enjoying I order a physical copy of.

I think something like Spotify provides a solution of sorts to some of the issues here, at least for me anyway. (though not necessarily for dance music)

I find lately if I am keen to hear a particular act, especially older stuff, I can check them out instantly on Spotify and then take it from there, find LPs for listening to on the move or whatever.

I can really relate to the first comment: "Music collecting seems more like an illness these days".

It's v true that it can become that way, there's an irony to the fact that there is so much free music out there that you could v easily spend all your time getting it and less of your time listening to any.

Oddly enough I've never done the whole 100 gig music swap but I know friends who'd feel the urge to "fill" an ipod, even with stuff they'd never heard.

It is sort of sickly, but then to be honest I used to feel vaguely sick at spending 100 or 200 euro on vinyl back in the day too, didn't everyone?

sure you're happy with the load but something about spending that much money....

Ronan, I remember watching an interview with John Peel, he was driving in his car, frantically ploughing through tapes. He joked that this would be the death of him, that in mid tape change he would crash. He went on to say that commentators on his death would claim "that's how he would of wanted to go", to which is he said "And they would all be utterly wrong".

I think he too knew of the slightly unhinged nature of music collecting.

I agree, that is is easy to spend more time searching than listening. A horrible thought, can that ever be right? With the sheer volume of music we are able to obtain now, I think it is easy to spend more time filing and organising it!

I never minded paying for vinyl though, sadly I don't really have anything else I would want to spend my money on

"I've been averaging about 10-15 records a month, and I end up listening to these records over and over again; just sitting there...listening. Getting a small stack of records is completely euphoric, and stays that way, whereas big hard drive transfers are chores, both during the transfer and afterwards.

I now spend much more time listening to my records, buying records and basically loving music more. My point is simply one that the ssgs (and more specifically Peter) have been making for awhile: spend time with your music. Records and (to a lesser extent) CDs allow you to do this."

Agreed. I'm the same as yourself. However this can only be achieved if you deliberately put time aside for listening. I know a lot of people who complain about "not getting the time to listen" even though they spend 3-4hrs (at least) a night watching the TV.

I found creating a comfortable environment and being totally happy with your sound/set up to be very important. For some people this isn't possible which i think could play a big part in listening habits.

Byetone's Plastic Star was one of my favorites from 2008. Initially, I was given a 320kbps copy of it from a good friend. Then I went and bought the same release in wav. Then I went and bought the record. I actually own quite a few (or too many, some would say) releases on both lossless digital and vinyl.

I won't hate on or judge people who download music. There was a period when I was downloading every other thing posted on w-ki.com.

I agree with what you say in the post and a lot of what's said in the comments but for me, currently the most important reason behind not downloading music is for sound quality's sake. I'm not ashamed or afraid to admit I'm an audio-snob wannabe (I don't think I could call myself an audiophile yet). On a daily basis I walk around with over $2k worth of portable listening equipment and 320kbps just don't cut it for me no more! I need wav or flac. Even when I get sent music from good friends, sometimes I don't even bother downloading--if it's something recommended by a trustworthy source or something I was keen to get anyway, I just go and buy the lossless equivalent somewhere.

Not to mension, injecting some cash flow into an industry that means a lot to me isn't a bad thing at all, I don't think.

I downloaded a lot of music via soulseek over the last 10 years, but over the last one or two years i lost all interest in music. I used to blame the minimal hype (and later the deep house and the the dubstep hype) for that. But since i got my first credit card six months ago, i spend more money for mp3s (sorry guys, it's 2009 and noone needs vinyl or CDs anymore, except you have too much money and dont want to throw it out of the window) than i spend for music over the last 10 years

Today i enjoy browsing through boomkat or beatport and i only buy songs i really like. This way i save a lot of space on my harddrive and at the same time i listen to the music more often, for a longer period of time and more concentrated

I did do it once. Took about 30 gigs of a friends music. Without the flirtation period, or finding out about it by myself (I know that's not possible, I guess what I mean is research) I just didn't really listen to any of it. I still trawled websites etc finding out about music and buying it on record or cd, and then realized I was double up on everything because I had a motherload of music on an external drive. In the end the drive went with an ex girlfriend and I wasn't bothered at all. I continued buying records and cds and was happy. I will get stuff from friemds I have an interest in but still steadfastly buy it if I like it. I find with the amount of music out there it is hard to REALLY be into something if you have too much to listen to to take it all in. I find at least if I buy it, the outlay of my salary means I REALLY listen to it. And a lot more than once. Having to spend money on something is like a quality control agent. Thats why you find music released on record is generally of a higher quality than the thousands upon thousands of digital only releases now floating out there in the musical universe. Because labels have to spend money on a release they are more careful about the things they release. (I think I am starting another argument...or at least swerving wildly off track here)I feel the same way about my purchasing of music though is what I am getting at.Because I have moved from NZ to London, and seem to be moving flats every five minutes buying records has become a problem. I spend more time moving them than the furniture. So I bought Traktor Scratch, which you would think would make me throw this file sharing music policy of mine out the window seeing as I can actually have fun with mixing it now. But I feel like the only person in the world who this has made more careful about the music I buy?I don't want to fill up a hard drive of crap I am never gonna listen to. And because the music is more faceless (just file names and tiny pictures) I want everything on there to be good and not have to accidently wade thru heaps of stuff I don't even really know before I find something great and that I really like. And I am slightly OCD about my computers cleanliness as well!PS That felt like a wildly off target rant there. Sorry!

I know how you feel about a stack of unlistened music getting bigger & bigger. Thanks to the multitude of mixes & podcasts available in the Blogosphere, I have a backlog of some 600 mixes that I add to everyday, but only listen to on my daily commute.

So I end up with on average 4 hours of new mixes a day (Usually more though), where I can only listen to, normally, just over 3 it will get to a point where I'll have to call it a day & not download anymore until that is cleared. This will be when by external hard drive is clogged to the rafters. I could though burn the (sub) CD-length mixes to CD, but that is another task that I haven't got time to do as I'm busy digitising my vinyl to WAV for my podding pleasure

i'm still buying records but not at the rate i was a few years back when i had less bills. back when it was a matter of food or records, i always went with the latter. but now i guess i have starved far too long. as i buy less and less vinyl, i can feel the mp3 shiver crawl up my spine. the time draws near especially in our current economy.

i go to beatport, juno, whatpeopleplay and etc. in order to hear what's out there, since going to the record store every couple of days is out of the question now. i find music i like and i put it in my "crate" only to be holed up there like some sort of prisoner never to escape (purchased). never buying the "crate" i eventually make it to the record store and find some of the gems i previously left back in the "on-line dungeon".

records are $12.99 and upwards now! hardly an affordable hobby anymore (at least for someone like me). so maybe it is time for traktor or serrato??? i just have this strange feeling that the majority of my friends and colleagues that play digital formats are part of this fast food culture within electronic music. it's almost as if(at least to me), that they don't really have an intimate knowledge of what or who they are playing. if you were to ask them that question i'm sure the majority would look down at their computer screen.

mp3s are released faster that you can keep up with them. the classic is dead. a track may be popular for a week or two, only to be left to the wayside for something else, something newer. i can't quite put my finger on it, but something seems wrong about that to me.

when i eventually make the change, will i too, download music and play it without knowing who produced it or what label it's on? these are things i still enjoy knowing when i buy a record. it is part of my musical passion. like collecting baseball cards or comics as a child. it's the knowledge. that knowledge seems to be disappearing in my friends sets. that's not to say that this is ALWAYS true, but it seems more and more prominent and i imagine it will get worse as time goes on.

one thing is for sure, when i do make the change to digital DJing, i will increase my library 10 fold all at a fraction of the cost. not a bad deal. and there is so much great music out there that just isn't available on vinyl. the netlabels, the digital release onlys, my friends productions, the list goes on. when it happens, i suppose it's up to me to maintain my musical breadth and knowledge in an intangible musical universe.

@pantycontrolWell like I said in my post, I just bought Traktor. and have been careful to avoid the faceless music thing by not just downloading shitloads of stuff and not really knowing it.I try to only buy a small amount of WAVs at a time. As I still play out a little bit I think its important to actually know what your playing and where to go with your set. Not just have an armory of stuff with know idea what it is. If I find something I really want on record I still by it as well.

Ok maybe not quite 2k yet. Sorry, that was me exaggerating!! I do really need to get a proper dock-to-mini cable from ALO or something, and I've also been toying with the idea of getting my iPod modded for a while now...

Seems like a lot, I know, but seriously worth every penny, I tell you!! I listen to music at work every day and while my body is in front of the computer programming away, my mind is far, far away in fucking Labyrinth. It makes my life very enjoyable.

The trouble I have with sharing is that, when I think about it really hard, I don't want a bigger music collection. There are particular things I really, really want. And I want to find new and exciting music that I've never heard of before. But above all I want to spend more time with the incredible music that I already have. There just aren't enough hours in the day (or space on my laptop) to do that as it is. I'm all for this slowing-down trend. In the last 30 days I've loaded 43 new songs into my iTunes, and half of that's review material. That pace feels about right.

Accordingly, sharing music with even very good friends takes me way off the path - now I'm checking out *their* music, not my own. Though it's a great way to find some new stuff, more of my Big Discoveries come from following my own music - digging deeper into the catalogs of artists whose music I'm just getting to know, checking out records that my old favorites mention in an interview, trying persuasive recommendations from critics, figuring out the fundamentals of subgenres I'm not so hip to.

There are one, maybe two people whose Sendspace tips I always make time for. And that's because (1) they don't do it often and (2) they're making recommendations based with me in mind.

I probably listen while working for anywhere between 2-6 hours a day. If I'm listening to something good, I'll stop and grin ear to ear at something far beyond my monitor like a fucking retard until I notice my co-workers staring at me like I'm crazy. But in general, something with a steady beat puts me in a good programming groove.

And then I usually come home and do some more listening to shit till about 3am or so every night, while I more often than not don't do much else, other than send occasional emails and chats to friends saying something along the lines of "I'm listening to XXX and it's making me shit my pants!!!!!"

Don't really like starting mixes and things that are meant to be heard in its entirety unless I know I have enough time to finish it without interruption. So naturally, I listen to mostly tracks at work and mostly mixes at home.

Earphones and headphones make me feel a little claustrophobic when I'm at home for some reason, so I make do with my crappier-than-avg speakers at night. Works well with my listening patterns I guess, because mixes and shit are usually of lower bit rate and flaws and imperfections become too obvious through my earphones, which bugs me to the point it takes away from the experience.

Ookay. I obviously have too much time on my hands these days, posting so many comments. Great questions though--made me think and realize a lot about my listening habits and priorities and shit... Thanks.

well with traktor duo only being $350 the temptation is even more so. logically speaking, it make sense for me to switch over to digital sooner than later as well.

on a side note..recently a very well established producer/dj (whose name i will leave out) came by and dumped off about 14 gigs of material. some of it unreleased and some just projects that are in the works. my roommates were ecstatic of course (myself a little too, i must say) and a few days later, one of my friends was djing tracks from the new batch of 14 gigs. the set was awesome. people were really digging it and dancing past 5am (which is good where i live). the thing is, when i asked him what he was playing, he said, "just some of those new tracks i got. i haven't had a chance to listen to them yet." i must say that response definitely took a bit of the magic out of his set in my eyes. he was just randomly playing someone else's music library at that point. not selecting out tracks with thought put into them. i guess not knowing would have been better. ultimately i know it's up to me not to do the same thing eventually.

@ PantycontrolYeah, one of the reasons I switched to digital as well as I am friends with a few producers and every month they send me unreleased material to listen to some of which gets released, some of which doesn't. Ironically its always the stuff that doesn't get a release I like the most and with it never coming out on record I'd never play any of it otherwise.I bought Traktor Duo. You can upgrade it to Pro for only 70 euros as well. (of course without the Audio 8 soundcard) TBH I am still finding it hard to get used to. I work with a computer everyday and work very long hours, and having a computer involved in what was a wind down relaxation hobby isn't ideal!

Oh yeah Listening habits.I listen to most of my music at work thru my Sony Mp3 player and my hd25s. I work usually 13-16 hours a day so I don't find much space outside of work.I find if I really like something worktends to come to a standstill and I end up gazing off into space.I also have a mix once a week at least for about 3 hours so I listen then. And I also turn the stereo up very loudly and listen when I am cleaning the house.This also includes running one of my monitors out the window into the yard so I can sit and wind down after the cleaning storm with a cigerette and a drink in the sun.(if its sunny)My girlfriend and I also listen to a lot when we have drinks together but that tends not to be electronic as she isn't that into it.

I've always downloaded music. I recently formatted about 600+ gig of mp3, some legally acquired, most not. Immediately after I had realized what I'd done a strange thing happened. Instead of feeling angry, or frustrated, or annoyed, I felt relieved.

Thinking back on my mammoth mp3 collection I remember there being a certain point. It was the height of the file sharing experience. By a mix of p2p, and torrenting I had collected the entire discography of dozens of artists. In spite of this I was never satisfied, I felt like I was jumping from track to track in an endless ocean of music. It was not about experiencing the music, but collecting and archiving it.

Now that I have 1 terabyte to fill again, I plan to build a vast collection of netlabel material. My passion for electronic music was recently rekindled when I began to check out what was happening on the netlabel scene. I used to be involved in a handful of online noise/expiramental labels in the early 2000's, but had been out of the loop for a long time. Somehow I ran across Stadtgruen, Schall, Cism and Qunabu. I instantly fell in love with the online music scene. A whole spectrum of music exists out there.

I now am the proud owner of almost a hundred netlabel large collection (mostly techno and noise related). Each time I become tired of what's on my playlist I start to throw in some unlistened-to netlabel releases. I find this process very pleasant, as I never run out of new, and mostly quite modern and well-thought out, techno music. And there's everything, from the abrasive rattling noise of minimal to the deepest techno you've ever heard (silent season for example).

Just a quick bit of anecdotal information - what I find myself listening to (and sharing) most often on my computer are mixes and live sets (many of them thanks to the ssgscast & links posted here). I do think that one of the silver linings to the mp3 takeover has been the ability to hear great sets that you otherwise wouldn't be aware of, let alone have a chance to check out.